The Ottawa star of a YouTube channel that features him allegedly trespassing on various properties overnight has been arrested and charged, hours after telling his audience in his latest episode that his videos have become so lucrative that he has quit his job to focus on making more.

The man known online as JayStation has built a wide reputation for his “24 Hour Challenge” videos, which see him sneaking into stadiums, malls and hotels after they close so he can stay the night. His escapades are recorded by an accomplice. The two spend the night wandering the properties and occasionally dodging security guards.

One recent video at The Bay in the Rideau Centre actually includes the man’s arrest for allegedly trespassing, and later shows him brandishing his ticket outside the Elgin Street police station.

Police announced on Thursday that four Ottawa men have been arrested and face numerous charges as a result of videos posted to the JayStation YouTube channel between Oct. 17 and Oct. 26.

However, there have been several videos posted to the channel since then.

The most recent, posted Nov. 23, was viewed more than 550,000 times in the first 24 hours after it was posted. In it, he wanders through what appears to be Ottawa’s World Exchange Plaza and says near the beginning of the video that his YouTube channel has become so popular that he can afford to quit his job to focus on making more videos.

“It’s exciting, but I feel weird about it because now I’m fully committed of (sic) how I make my money and it’s sort of stressful.”

The decision is an about-face from a video he posted Oct. 28, when he became aware the police were investigating his YouTube channel and promised he would stop making videos.

“I wish this was a joke. I am making this video to tell you I am no longer doing these 24 hour challenges because basically I’m risking my freedom. That’s not something I am prepared to give up,” he said at the time.

In an email Thursday, a YouTube spokeswoman said the company’s videos “must comply with our Community Guidelines and we have strict policies that prohibit misconduct on YouTube. We have stopped monetization on this channel while we conduct a review of the claims against this user.”

Ottawa police Const. Marc Soucy likened the content on the JayStation channel to more clear cut crimes like drug dealing.

“As long as people are doing illegal stuff, we will be investigating them and the potential for being charged is there,” he said.

YouTube is notoriously opaque when it comes to detailing the money it pays its creators for producing new videos. However, at least one online resource, built to help creators estimate how much money they can expect from YouTube for video content, estimated that with 550,000 views, JayStation’s Nov. 23 video is already worth between $748 US and $1,870 US. Another video on the site has more than one million views.

Video content that is more advertiser-friendly pays higher than videos that are not.

The most popular video on the JayStation Channel, purportedly showing a trespass in a home, was later determined to be a hoax carried out in collusion with the home’s residents.

Anabel Quan-Haase, an associate professor in the faculty of information and media studies at the University of Western Ontario, said until now YouTube has been walking a fine line between being a storage house for videos and being a broadcaster that uses the Internet to distribute its signals. She said the day is quickly coming when YouTube will need to adopt policies to police the types of videos it allows on its network.

“YouTube sees itself as not being necessarily responsible for the content. They just broker between what the audience wants and the creators of the content,” said Quan-Hasse. “But that is the problem. These brokers need very clear guidelines so users can be comfortable about where the content is coming from.

“(YouTube) are big players. They are making most of the content in the world available to a global audience. It is already mainstream. They will need to look, much more seriously, into creating very clear guidelines and policies in terms of what is acceptable.”

The YouTube spokeswoman said the site does offer specific guidelines for unacceptable content, which includes “content that intends to incite violence or encourage dangerous or illegal activities that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death.”

Charged with trespassing in relation to the videos posted on the JayStation YouTube channel are Jason Ethier, 26, Adam Morgan, 20, Hamzah Faraj, 18, and Olyad Motuma, 18, all of Ottawa. Police said the four were also cautioned on two other incidents. They are to appear in court Dec. 9.

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